Saturday, December 19, 2009

Welcome to another edition of blog DVD reviews. This week we take a look at ABC Studios/Buena Vista Home Entertainment's Kyle XY: The Complete Third Season - The Final Season. Kyle XY is the hit original ABC Family series about a teenage boy with extraordinary abilities that appears out of nowhere and later stays with a family. See my blog DVD review of Kyle XY: The Complete Third Season - The Final Season:

Kyle XY: The Complete Third Season - The Final Season (Buena Vista, $39.99) brings all 10 episodes from the third and unfortunately final season of the ABC Family Channel original series! As all great men grow into their hero status, they must learn that their special attributes come with a price. In season three of Kyle XY, Kyle is not exempt from this rule and now, as greater forces push him to rise to new levels, he must become a man. And to do so, Kyle may have to sacrifice relationships with those he holds most dear. Kyle XY stars Matt Dallas, Marguerite MacIntyre, Bruce Thomas, April Matson, Jean-Luc Bilodeau, Chris Olivero, Kirsten Prout and Jaimie Alexander.

All 10 episodes from the third season are very good, but the ones that stand out are the season premiere "It Happened One Night," where Kyle awakens inside a Latnok building, where he attempts to escape and rescue Amanda from Latnok's clutches, meanwhile Jessi comes to Kyle's aid when she senses his troubles, but she must abandon Sarah in order to do so. In the episode "Life Support," when Nicole, Kyle and Josh are en route to a psychology conference, but they get into an accident when Kyle (who was driving) becomes distracted and suddenly swerves to avoid hitting another car, which sends the Tragers' vehicle off the road before crashing into a ravine. In "Welcome to Latnok," after Cassidy helps to save Nicole's life, Kyle is a man of his word and begins to pay his debt back to Latnok, but what Kyle finds is a complete surprise -- Latnok is not some dark and scary place, but rather a hip college hangout for brilliant young minds, including Mark. In "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," now that Kyle and Jessi know the true story of Sarah's demise, they're on the hunt to find out what Cassidy really wants from them, but in the effort to do so, Kyle must do something that doesn't come naturally to him -- lie...to make Cassidy trust him and believe that he's on board with Latnok, Kyle invites Cassidy over for dinner. And in the series finale "Bringing Down to House," Kyle gets Cassidy to open up about Latnok's plans for the future of Adam Baylin's experiment and to his horror, Kyle learns that the secret society is going ahead with a production of multiple clones of Kyle, so Kyle and Jessi must find a way to put a stop to it, and he enlists the help of the Tragers, Declan, and Amanda. But with the world thinking Jessi is dead and Kyle trying to keep up with all the lies he has told, will they be able to find the secret test facility in time?

Packaging has a nice outer box with Kyle showing he has no belly-button (again) and also standing next to him are Jessi and Cassidy. The color scheme is orange and blue. The back cover has tons of information on the series & set and a list of special features and some screenshots, along with a nice family photo of the Trager family. Inside the box is the case, with the same artwork as the outer box--I hate that. All three discs are inside on the panels. Disc one is on the left panel, while discs two and three are on the right panel, overlapping each other. Ugh, I hate that. The last set had 6 discs and there was no overlapping whatsoever! So we have a downgrade here. Inside the case, we also have some inserts: Disney Blu-ray DVD and other DVDs catalog such as other ABC Family hits Make It Or Break It & 10 Things I Hate About You. When we remove disc one, on the packaging itself, we get a nice disc-by-disc breakdown of episodes and on the right side when we remove discs two & three we have nice episodic photos on the packaging itself. Disc one holds episodes 1-4 and has artwork same as the cover art, disc two holds episodes 5-8 and has artwork of the Trager family and disc three has the final two episodes & the special features and has artwork of Kyle with Amanda and Jessi.

The menu screen has Play All, Episode Selection, Audio Commentary, Bonus Features, Sneak Peeks, and Set Up. Audio Commentary option is on disc two only (though we do have one more on disc three, but it is listed with the Bonus Features). Sneak Peeks and Bonus Features are only on the last disc. Sneak Peeks has trailers for Greek and much more. Everything else is on each disc. Set Up gives us the option to register your DVD and to turn on subtitles in English, French or Espanol. Episodes menu has a screenshot in a square with episode number and title. The main menu has the Latnok logo then we are into a black-grey room where moving images (screenshots from episodes) on screens are in the background. The closing credits music from the series is playing in the background on the main menu and also on sub-menus. Auto previews are playing before the menu comes on disc three such as for the Make It Or Beak It and Surrogates DVDs.

Each episode runs approx. between 43-44 minutes (highest being 44:14 and lowest being 42:06...with most near 44 minutes), so it seems it is a bit longer than shows on broadcast television, but there are about 1-2 minute "previously on Kyle XY" recaps on each episode. There are about 6 chapter stops per episode. The video and audio is superb, as it should be since it is a series that just aired this past season. The video is in widescreen and for those who watched it on ABC Family, will like it even more this way, if you don't get ABC Family HD! I have HD, but my cable service didn't have ABC Family HD when this season aired, so I had to watch in full-frame, but it is nice watching it in widescreen format on this DVD!

Moving on to the extras. Discs two has an audio commentary on the episode "Life Support" from executive producers David Himelfarb and Eric Tuchman. They give a lot of information and tidbits, and they feel this is one of the best episodes of the entire series. On disc three we have an audio commentary on the series finale "Bringing Down the House," from executive producer David Himelfarb and co-executive producer Julie Plec. By the time they did the commentary they knew this was the last episode. This was not intended to be a series finale, so they were surprised the series was canceled.

As for the rest of the extras, we have 12 deleted scenes with optional audio commentary from executive producers David Himelfarb and Eric Tuchman. I suggest you watch it with the commentary so you know why it was deleted and where the scene was from. Runtimes for each deleted scene: 1:33, 0:33, 0:43, 0:38, 1:00, 1:42, 1:14, 1:59, 1:03, 0:29, 1:02, and 0:45. Then finally we have a very interesting featurette called "Kyle XY: Future Revealed." It runs 12:35 and we are told how it all ends! It is a great wrap-up for fans that you'll want to see for sure! Interviewed are Eric Tuchman, David Himelfarb, Julie Plec, and Matt Dallas.

I of course highly do recommend any fan to pick up this set. And if you never have watched the show, I urge you to get the first two seasons on DVD and then get this DVD because this is the best basic cable series EVER! I was hooked and I disappointed we will not have a fourth season to see what happens from the cliffhanger ending from the third season finale. I wish ABC Family would at least greenlight a two-hour finale movie event to wrap it up, since this was their first original series and it did so well for them. This series has comedy, drama, action, science fiction, and everything you can imagine. It is a perfect show for anyone to watch. Join Kyle and the rest of the gang in season three to find out what is Latnok and who really is Cassidy! Let's change the world with Kyle!

The Middle - "The Setup" (ABC, 8:00PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
Frankie is tasked with being at her mom Pat’s (Marsha Mason) beck and call when she has to stay for a few days at the Heck house after coming down with an ailment. Meanwhile, just when it looks like Sean is about to ask Sue out on a date, Sue nervously blurts out that maybe they should both try to set each other up on a date with one of their friends; and Axl and Brick ponder what it is exactly that Mike does at the quarry.

The Middle - "Eyes Wide Open" (ABC, 8:30PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
Axl heads to Chicago to visit Hutch for the weekend but discovers that his friend, who has his own apartment and a job, is now acting more like a responsible adult than the free-spirited college student he once knew. Meanwhile, Sue’s excitement over having the apartment to herself over the weekend turns to horror when she is unable to sleep after watching “Silence of the Lambs”; and Brick enlists Frankie and Mike’s aid to help convince Lilah, a new student who doesn’t know anyone at school yet, that she and Brick would make a cute couple.

black-ish - "Please Don't Feed the Animals" (ABC, 9:00PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
Bow keeps in touch with Dre’s incarcerated godbrother, Omar, but when they find out he is being released from prison, Omar’s future sparks debate. Meanwhile, Ruby lets it slip to the kids that she’s been to jail and they push her to tell them more secrets from her past.

black-ish - "Charity Case" (ABC, 9:30PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
Dre is chosen to lead Stevens & Lido’s new charity campaign which helps people give back to their community. When Bow advises Dre that there is more to giving back than cutting checks, he decides to donate some of his clothes to a man in need. Meanwhile, Junior fails his driving test, so Ruby offers to chaperone a trip with him and the twins on an informative outing.

Nicky, Ricky, Dicky & Dawn - "The Harper Quad-Jobbers" (Nickelodeon, 8:30PM ET/PT)
The quads try to earn money for a pool so that their house can be the place everyone wants to hang out at during the summer.

Sam Rockwell (F Is for Family) - Watch Sam on a repeat of Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.

Laura Benanti (The Detour/Go On/Starved) - Laura appears on a repeat of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert at 11:35pm on CBS.

Tiffani Thiessen (Alexa & Katie/Good Morning, Miami/Saved by the Bell/Saved by the Bell: The College Years) - Tiffani chats on The Talk on CBS at 2pm ET/1pm CT-PT.

Holly Robinson Peete (Hangin' with Mr. Cooper/For Your Love) - Holly and her husband Rodney talk about the Hallmark Channel original series Meet the Peetes on Home & Family on Hallmark Channel at 10am ET/PT.